Technological advances have geophysics industry changing its ways

By Mella McEwenmmcewen@mrt.com

Published
10:55 am CDT, Friday, March 28, 2014

Just as technological advances like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has transformed the oil and gas production industry by unlocking unconventional resources, it is transforming geophysics and the seismic industry.

With the growth of unconventional shale plays, Steve Jumper, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Dawson Geophysical, said Dawson’s services are now coming later in the cycle. He discussed changes his industry is experiencing recently with members of the Natural Gas Producer’s Association.

About 15 years ago, he said, “we were an exploration tool. Operators would hire us to shoot seismic over areas they felt were prospective. “Now, he said, seismic is a later part of the cycle because there is an ongoing drilling program as operators move to hold leases.

Unconventional resources like shale oil and shale gas have also shifted geophysical applications, Jumper said. “Today we’re tied more to horizontal drilling and it’s more where not to drill as opposed to where to drill,” he explained.

Thanks to a surge in the number of channels collecting seismic data, the denser information provided by those channels and the richer analysis, Jumper said, “our ability to help exploration companies understand things like fractures, rock fabric and rock texture. Over time I see a shift to more than avoidance to more information about rock fabric and rock texture. We’re pretty early in that cycle.”

When Decker Dawson formed the company 62 years ago, Jumper noted, he began with one crew and 48 channels. When Jumper joined the company in 1985, six crews were utilizing 120 channels. Today 12 crews utilize over 150,000 channels, he said. A crew using 10,000 channels is not uncommon, he said, pointing out that the last time Dawson was so active in the region, crews typically used 5,000 channels.

“That means one, they are covered, the size of the survey, has gotten bigger. It used to be 15, 20, 25 square miles. Now it’s 150 up to 300 square miles. We still like the smaller areas, too, we have a good mix. Two, the coverage, the number of channels and energy sources per square mile, the recording density has increased. So you have larger areas and more density, providing higher resolution data and that data lends itself to more high-end analysis.”

Crews can also utilize new cableless recording technology, recording equipment that operates autonomously and is synchronized to GPS time clocks to record continuously throughout the day and then shut off. This technology, Jumper said, is most useful in urban areas, agricultural areas or areas with the potential for extensive wildlife damage from cables.” He said crews can use a mix of cabled and cableless recording.

The company reached a high of 16 crews in 2008, Jumper said. “What’s interesting is that what defines a crew over the years has evolved. Because they’re somewhat larger and because of the recording equipment compatibility, we can use them in various ways. We can have 10 large and four small crews or 12 large crews, structure the size to the project.”

Also significant, he said, is that the number of seismic crews worldwide has fallen significantly, from a high of about 700 to about 50, “but the capacity has exploded. It’s more efficient, the type of work is different and involves more logistics.”

The last time the company had such significant activity in the Permian Basin was eight or nine years ago. Until now, they were helping operators search for natural gas in West Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and in Texas.

Dawson crews have worked 200 miles in every direction in the Permian Basin, he said, and are also active in Oklahoma’s Mississippian Lime, the Niobrara, the Bakken and in Canada. Where seismic surveys were predominantly ordered by companies looking to develop natural gas shales, he said, “our activity east of I-35 has trailed off dramatically over the last five years. Now it’s unconventional resources or liquids as opposed to predominantly gas.”